Formula Free.

Editor's Note: Given the compelling message in this column, we thought it would be appropriate to run it again this week. Peter will return with a new "Fumes" column next week. - WG

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. In the very first issue of this website (June 1, 1999), I proposed sweeping changes to the rules at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway because the onslaught of technology had clearly swallowed the sport whole, reducing racing to a game of never-ending restrictions, whereupon managing technology to keep the cars within a narrow band of performance had become the primary driver of all things connected to the sport, especially at The Speedway. Every year became a ritual dance of adjusting the rules package for the Indianapolis 500 so that the cars would qualify and race at a certain window of speed, and that was that.

And the other major racing series had followed suit. Everything from NASCAR to F1 to international sports car racing had embraced the idea that managing the technology within given parameters of cost vs. speed was the only way to go racing.

It had become obvious long before the first installment of this column that whatever role the Indianapolis Motor Speedway once played in bringing innovative technologies to the sport had been relegated to the dustbin of racing history. In that first column I proposed embracing new technologies and even looked forward to alternative forms of power, even going as far as suggesting hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

In 2007, I proposed the Hydrogen Electric Racing Federation to a group of racing and corporate dignitaries at a meeting in Detroit, with GM playing a very interested role to the point that Bob Lutz made the opening remarks encouraging the other manufacturers to participate, before introducing me. At that meeting I outlined a new manifesto for racing, that the sport needed to press the "reset" button and return to its rightful mission as a place to develop future automotive innovations and technologies that would ultimately benefit the automobiles we drive.

The constant thread running through all of this is that I am absolutely convinced that unless the top level of major league auto racing returns to its role as a place for future innovations and technologies, then the sport will continue its downward spiral and become just another "packaged" sports entertainment entity, a piece of content in the giant, orchestrated programming matrix signifying not much of anything to speak of. Yes, of course, some entities of the sport have already achieved that notoriety, like NASCAR, but the rest of the sport is moving inexorably toward the same dark place.

A cynical perspective would suggest that the future of the sport is already decided, that the lack of interest from the new entitlement generation and the cacophony of the media-entertainment landscape is relegating the sport to smaller and smaller pieces of the pie, with only the signature events - Le Mans, Indianapolis 500, Monaco GP - enduring on the annual sports calendar as transcendent events, with the rest of the sport surrounding those events getting lost in the swirling maelstrom of indifference. (Look at the Kentucky Derby and horse racing's Triple Crown and the interest in the sport before and after those major events if you need a a glimpse at a future scenario for auto racing.)

So what can be done?

I have proposed the "box" formula for the sport - particularly The Speedway - for many years and in many columns. "Formula Box" doesn't exactly have a compelling ring to it, but Formula Free certainly does. Or, we could refer to it in less formal, more irreverent way, as in Formula RWYB (Run What You Brung).

Let's look at how Formula Free would work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

1. A given machine must fit in a dimensional box. This is a simple enough notion, meaning that a dimensional "envelope" would be created that any given machine entered to qualify for the "500" must fit into, no exceptions. Accepted and agreed upon safety ingredients including a cockpit cell and other safety precautions would, of course, be mandatory.

2. Propulsion, aerodynamic devices, braking, suspension, etc., would be "free" and up to the individual entrant's discretion.

3. Each competitor would be given an allotment of fuel (adjusted for the various propulsion systems) to run the 500 miles with. Looking at a six-year plan for the new racing formula, think of 75 gallons (or the equivalent) for the first two years, 65 gallons for the next two and 45 gallons for the final two years. How fast do you want to go given the fuel at your disposal? The racing minds would have to figure out the ideal package based on power vs. efficiency.

Formula Free would transform the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500 dramatically. Each May the unloading of the racing machines off of the transporters would be a celebratory event, with bristling innovation and blue sky thinking bared for all to see.

And Formula Free could be applied to major league sports car racing and Formula 1 as well. (We'll leave the acknowledged "racertainment" entities to their own devices.)

Enthusiasts may get tired of hearing about the Can-Am and I don't blame them, after all it's ancient racing history for anyone younger than 50. But the Can-Am series was the closet we've ever gotten to an unlimited racing series. The Can-Am was in fact the Formula Free or Run What You Brung racing series that in retrospect was a fleeting moment of blue-sky creativity and innovation that the sport hasn't seen since. The enduring lesson of the Can-Am cannot and should not be ignored, and that is that a minimal rules package ends up generating intense creativity and innovative solutions.

Most people shrug and say that racing is what it is, and nothing will ever change. The people who like it, like it, and the people who don't, don't. To that end racing will continue to careen along in a lurid two steps forward, three back dance of mediocrity. Yes, there will be bright spots and great moments, but the overall state of the sport will continue to spiral downward, becoming a niche of a niche that only occasionally garners any attention beyond its insular, self-created "culture."

But I've never gone along with that notion and I'm not about to start now.

Racing can do better. And racing must do better.

If not, racing will succumb to its role of being the Sideshow Bob of the stick-and-ball sports-media complex.

And eventually fade away to oblivion.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Photo by Dave Friedman, courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Indianapolis, Indiana, 1967. Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark talk during practice for that year's Indianapolis 500. A.J. Foyt (No. 14 Sheraton-Thompson Coyote/Ford) would win the race, followed by Al Unser (No. 5 Retzloff Chemical Lola/Ford) and Joe Leonard (No. 4 Sheraton-Thompson Coyote/Ford). Clark (No. 31 STP Oil Treatment Lotus/Ford) would suffer a burned piston on Lap 35 and finish 31st, and Stewart (No. 24 Bowes Seal Fast Lola/Ford) dropped out with a blown engine on Lap 168, finishing 18th. See the race here from ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD